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An unscientific but tantalizing theory is that Hollywood movies are serving as how-to manuals. Authorities point to the 1996 De Niro-Pacino vehicle Heat, which one of the robbers in the North Hollywood shoot-out had repeatedly watched. In Set It Off, starring Queen Latifah, a gang of women successfully robs several banks. Police in Durham noted that the language used in one local robbery was similar to that in the film. "These things are media induced," contends Dallas FBI agent John Skillestad. "Hollywood is portraying bank robberies and glamourizing them."
Even though a civilian is three times as likely to be caught in the middle of a convenience-store stickup as in a bank heist, bank crime is a big image problem for both cities and banks. Memphis, Tennessee, where bank robberies doubled last year, has set up a task force to fight the trend. In Orlando, banks have banded together to share security costs and put up a $90,000 reward. And banks everywhere are rethinking design and location factors that make branches not only consumer friendly but robber friendly as well, such as their being scattered along freeways away from downtown. They are also upgrading the quality of their camera surveillance and looking into new devices such as "mantraps" that can seal off a vestibule at the flick of a teller's switch.
The banks are quick to point out that most bank robbers do get caught and are punished harshly. This crime does not pay, but the criminals seem to have forgotten that.
--With reporting by Hilary Hylton/Austin